Critical Condition (1987)

Post navigation

“This place is a joke. People are gonna die here tonight.” – Dr. Joffe

Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 Dec 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A con man sentences to the mental ward at a hospital escapes and pretends to be a doctor.

My Take on it – I have always been a fan of Richard Pryor’s comedy and was looking forward to seeing what he would do with this kind of role.

Unfortunately, even with Pryor’s involvement this film is terrible and presents such a silly story it’s quite amazing it was actually ever green lit for production.

There are too many plot holes that hurt taking this premise seriously and nothing works like it should.

Pryor manages to have a few good comedic lines thrown in, but even he feels out of place here and isn’t his usual funny self in this film.

Rachel Ticotin is quite good as the female lead, but the lack of real chemistry between her character and with Pryor’s actually hurts this film even more because it’s so difficult to understand why the friendship between the two begins to blossom.

There are way too many absurd scene sin this film that are went to actually be funny yet fall completely flat which makes one wonder how a film like this could actually be considered a comedy.

The one thing this film has going for it is nice supporting talent yet even with the likes of Bob Saget, Bob Dishy, Joe Mantagna, Ruben Blades and even Garrett Morris, this film fails on so many levels.

Bottom Line – Terrible film that doesn’t work at all largely due to the various plot holes along the way. Pryor has a few good lines, but overall, he is wrong for this role and doesn’t manage to give off a realistic feel for this kind of story. Ticotin is quite good as the female lead even if she and Pryor lack any kind of real chemistry that would help explain their growing friendship along the way. This film has way too many absurd scenes that are meant to be funny yet fall completely flat instead.